Fuji Says It Will Discontinue Some Motion Picture Products

EXCLUSIVE: Fuji has given us some detailed information about its plans following our exclusive report Friday that it will stop manufacturing motion picture film. The company, which handles about 20% of studio business, says that “due to the significant demand decrease resulting from digitalization in the industry,” Fujifilm plans to discontinue “some items” in its motion picture film products. Fuji says the discontinuation date has not been determined. Products to be eliminated include Color Positive Film, Color Negative Film, B&W Positive/Negative Film, Intermediate Film, Sound Recording Film, and High Contrast Panchromatic Film. But the company says it isn’t closing the entire motion picture department. It will continue to provide archive film stock (ETERNA-RDS, which won the Academy Scientific Engineering Award in 2012), lenses for shooting cameras and screening devices, media for data storage, digital data archive services and its on-set color management system (Image Processing System IS-100). Film “is considered the best solution for archival preservation,” which is why it will continue to make the ETERNA-RDS stock, Fuji says.